Animal models of preeclampsia; uses and limitations

Preeclampsia remains a leading cause of maternal and fetal morbidity and mortality and has an unknown etiology. The limited progress made regarding new treatments to reduce the incidence and severity of preeclampsia has been attributed to the difficulties faced in the development of suitable animal models for the mechanistic research of this disease. In addition, animal models need hypotheses on which to be based and the slow development of testable hypotheses has also contributed to this poor progress. The past decade has seen significant advances in our understanding of preeclampsia and the development of viable reproducible animal models has contributed significantly to these advances. Although many of these models have features of preeclampsia, they are still poor overall models of the human disease and limited due to lack of reproducibility and because they do not include the complete spectrum of pathophysiological changes associated with preeclampsia. This review aims to provide a succinct and comprehensive assessment of current animal models of preeclampsia, their uses and limitations with particular attention paid to the best validated and most comprehensive models, in addition to those models which have been utilized to investigate potential therapeutic interventions for the treatment or prevention of preeclampsia.